Sword Art Online II – 16

Continuing off of last week’s momentum, the story continues to dive deeper as it makes us wonder just how intricate a MMORPG can really be.

Infinite Unique Quests

Compared to all the different arcs we’ve seen, I think this second trip back to ALO is quickly becoming my favorite. With the story focusing on the game and some of the intricate mechanics working behind the scenes, it finally feels like we’re watching something that deserves to be called Sword Art Online’s second season.

Starting with the infamous Cardinal System that governed the lives of thousands of players during the SAO incident, I thought it was cool to get a closer look at the thing. Something more than just code running as the backend to the game, who would have thought it had the AI to research, store, and customize different cultural elements from throughout the world to create an infinite amount of unique quests? However, the idea of a self serving AI also brings up a fairly scary question — how much control do the real life people in-charge actually have? You’d assume that the people in-charge of the servers would be able to manipulate things as they’d see fit, right? But based off of Yui’s spiel, it kind of feels like this AI seems to be manipulating things on its own. I mean, it can’t just be a coincidence that all of this is happening when the people who could stop it are on their day off, could it?

Not the Kirito Show

Another thing that I’ve been really enjoying is just how little Kirito seems to be doing throughout this arc. From Klein spitting out horrible one-liners to Sugu befriending giant floating octopuses, it really is a joy to see everyone show us just how capable they really are. And for me personally, I would love to see more of Liz and Silica. I mean, how cool is this shot!?

Giants, Quests, and Looking Ahead

With Kirito and company ready to fight the King of Giants, I can’t wait to see the fight that’s about to ensue. Even though I have this nagging feeling that something vital to the plot has been carefully hidden away from us, I’m sure everything will be revealed to us in due time. Anyways, see you next week!

P.S. Someone in the comments pointed this out to me last week but boy would I like to actually see what would happen in the event Kirito and company fail to complete the quest. Maybe down the road in an OVA or something? c:

Despite everyone going Admiral Ackbar, he sticks to his bushido code of chivalry. Besides, the chance to start his own harem independent from Kirito’s is just too great to resist, evenif she’s only an NPC. Lol

“it’s a trap” “a trap” “a trap” -_- Pfffftt, then it turns out it was not a trap, in the lethal sense.

My my, this is where “Sanji” saves the day. Lol, now this is his time to shine as he stops the wedding. All that’s left is for him to borrow Kirito’s swords, use Santoryu, and go demonic to KO the evil giant king.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Ps56zDong

Or, at least, he should at least use his powers, as Wild Tiger, and be “superman” in the last minute before time runs out.

Pffft, poor “Sanji,” the face of an attracting woman is an enough of a “trap” since that woman succeeded in a “stealing his heart” trap. Expect “Sanji” to give the “Death Wink” on the king to then roast him.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU2wC-gSwMU

Klein is by and large the absolutely most entertaining thing about this arc. He should’ve had a ton more focus in the rest of the show, and it would balance out the gender ratio of the cast more! It doesn’t matter if no one in the show respects him.

For once, yes. If we considerd the time when SAO was a trap, along with the fact that Kirito had to got into a sick NTR situation later, and including the recently the Death Gun incident. The entire time, Kirito has finally “played a game” for real for the first time.

……..However, unless Japan has legalized polygamy, Kirito has yet to solve one problem reality contains for him; so he may go back to a “life and death” situation.

This is definitely my favorite arc out of the entire series. However, the deja-vu scene was kind of subdued and felt phoned-in. Skill Connect is freaking OP. It’ll be pretty important in the current LN arc if they ever get to animating it.

To be honest, the MMO combat in this sucks compared to Log Horizon. It isn’t accurate to MMO’s, nor is it even interesting combat. Everything is centered over Kirito being magically OP because for some reason he is the only person who thinks of using 2 weapons instead of 1.

It is not so much that no one else thinks of using more than one weapon, but that it requires more accurate timing to use, which makes it impractical for normal players.

In truth, Skill Connect was not meant be used this way, but Kirito is forcing it to. Think of it like exploiting a glitch. To chain sword skills with Skill Connect, you have to time the next skill within a couple frames or milliseconds right as the previous skill ends, to override and cancel the forced cooldown time. In terms of real life games, it’s kind of like Wavedashing in Smash Bros Melee, completely unintended and cumbersome for the average player, but potentially broken in the hands of someone experienced.

Kirito has actually tried to teach some of these abilities to the others in the group, but they quickly gave up.

Even if you want to use two weapons, it’s harder than it sounds. Ever do any LARPing or PVC fights? The chuunibyou in me wanted to go two-swords, but without working at it, my weaker hand just couldn’t keep up. It was far easier to go one weapon and shield, or a two-handed weapon.

for me its funny how they try not to turn this anime (ONCE AGAIN) into a kirito show by showing the party members doing its share in chipping the boss’ HP but still fail because of the fact that its still kirito ALONE who has the spotlight and deals the most awesome , fancy (and biggest) damage.

well it kinda makes me puke at such showing when you compare the details of party teamwork in log horizon where shiroe have the spotlight but his party members are also inside that spotlight. in short they equally share the glory.

i think is because one was resistant to physical damage, and the other one to magic, if Kirito’s group were specialized in offensive magic (Asuna and leafa only have support spells), they would have to fight that one instead

A pleasant surprise~to think the day would come where I did not find myself bored t/o an entire episode of SAO. Less Kirito-more Kirito’s harem really does the trick (yup I consider Klein part of ze harem). I hope they keep the humor going…it definitely helps in making Kirito slightly more likeable (even if barely).

It is nice to both see a game that is JUST A GAME, even if it is about to self-destruct… and Kirito not being lord and savior of everyone, bu just one of the players ina TEAM…
though when it comes to emphasizing teamplay aspect, nothing beats Log Horizon – even relatively minor characters affect the game, and Magnificent Bastard Hero very much needs his competent friends…